Matthew 6:19-24 Masters, Eyes, and Treasures Pt. 1

Church, I I heard this story this week about a pastor who was doing a Bible study on the seven deadly sins.

Um, you know, pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

And he was and he was presenting this, and his wife asked him about the topics, and she said, Are they gonna be like announced ahead of time?

Are they gonna know like what day you're doing what study?

And he said they would be announcing what day they're doing which study.

And his wife said, She said, Well, I guarantee you I know which one's gonna be the least well attended.

And he was kind of taken aback by that.

He's like, Well, how do you know this?

And she said, I'm just gonna say, I think probably the topic or the the the day that you do the study on greed that week will be your least attended class when he teaches on greed.

And sure enough, uh, as wives usually usually are, his wife was correct, and went to the class, and very few people attended the class.

As a pastor, it's an interesting observation.

I think it's accurate that most people don't think they're greedy.

I've been in ministry 10 years now, and um I've just never had anyone call me or text me or grab coffee or come to me after a service and just say, I'm really struggling with greed.

I have a greed issue.

It's just not something that's on people's radars, and that's fascinating.

You know, the the wealthiest society in human history, and apparently no one struggles with greed, right?

Now we know that's not true, and this isn't just a sermon about greed or the sin of greed or our money, but it is about our view of these things.

What do we do with money?

Money mixed with sinful nature and the worldly wisdom all around us makes us stewarding and rightly thinking about money a challenge.

It's a much bigger challenge to think well about money, to think biblically about money than we probably would like to admit.

Are you greedy?

So question for you.

Do you assume, just assume that you're not greedy because other people are making way more money than you are?

I mean, how can you be greedy if you're just not making a whole lot of money?

It's someone who's making a lot of money.

They're the greedy ones.

Webster defines greed as a selfish and excessive desire for more of something.

You can be greedy if you have two million dollars, and you can be greedy if you have two dollars.

The sin of greed is one of those that's deceptive, though, because it blinds you because it's uh someone else's, you're focused on someone else.

You're looking at someone else.

It's like bitterness.

Like bitterness, people struggle with bitterness because they're always looking to the other person who wronged them.

They're bitter at that person for what they did.

And maybe what they did was sinful and wrong, but there's then bitterness in their heart toward them, and they don't see that.

They just see the wrong that that person has done to them.

Well, similarly, greed, if we don't, if we're not careful, we're looking at what other people have and what we what they got, and we're like, I'm not greedy.

Look how much they have, look at their abundance.

How can I be greedy?

I shop at Aldi, not Kroger, right?

How can I be greedy?

I drive just a bunch of old-used cars.

I give 10% of my net income to the church.

I'm not greedy.

But we have a tendency, actually, to be greedy.

It's so easy for us to be deceived about these things and to let our guard down, so to speak, when it comes to money.

But money is tricky.

It's a funny thing, it's tricky to talk about, it's tricky to how much money do we have?

How much money do we give away?

How much money do we save?

How much money do we spend?

What kind of things do we spend money on?

Now, for most people, these questions feel like they answer themselves because there's just not a whole lot of money to go around.

Right?

So you're like, I'm not struggling with the question, what do I do with all my excess cash at the end of the month?

That's not how most people live, but I guarantee you you have more money than you think you do.

And all these things are good questions.

They need answered.

How do we think about saving and spending and giving?

But if we're not careful, what we end up doing is we just answer those questions.

Well, I need to save this percent, I need to give this percent, I'll put this much in retirement, we'll spend this much on groceries or our birthdays.

But we'll never answer the biggest question.

Like, what's God say about money?

And what is my heart telling me about money?

Are they in agreement?

Is what God's word says about money and what my heart is feeling about money, are those things in agreement?

Now, money is just the most prevalent form of materialism.

But maybe it's not cash for you, maybe it's your treasure, something else.

It's clothing or vacations or traveling or something else, it's a house or car or whatever.

It can be really any kind of material thing, but it what do you treasure?

So the Lord cares about our worship.

That's what he cares about.

Not to say the Lord doesn't care about like your money or what you're doing with it.

I'm just saying primarily, ultimately, he's caring about worship.

Are you worshiping the Lord?

Is you do you have an attitude of worship?

Last week I preached on Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes, and in the introduction to the Sermon of the Mount, how the Beatitudes are setting up the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.

And the text we have in Matthew 6 is part of that Sermon on the Mount.

This is Jesus' sermon.

And as that is shaping us, or sorry, reorienting us, it reorients us to look to Christ.

So the Beatitudes do that, just this initial, blessed are all these things, and all those things are upside down compared to the world.

They're just backward.

Blessed are the those who mourn.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

All these things seem so upside down and backward compared to the rest of the world.

How is being blessed in the poor in spirit?

How is that a good thing?

And Jesus is, he's after our heart.

Are we worshiping him?

He's reorienting our affections and our focus to him.

So Matthew 6, verses 19 through verses 24 reorients us.

Matthew 6:19

If we're willing, if we're willing for that, it reorients us to understand God's ways.

So let's read that.

This is God's holy, precious word.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full full of light.

But if your body if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

We need to treasure, we need treasures rightly placed in our lives.

We need these things rightly placed.

So the Lord, it would seem, is not anti-treasure.

He just wants us as his people to have our treasures in the right things.

Well, what are treasures?

Have you ever thought about this?

What are treasures?

The things we find, the things we find value and we find security, we find pleasure in.

Your cash isn't good cash or bad cash, right?

Your retirement, your clothing, those aren't things aren't good or bad.

Those objects are amoral.

But what we do with them, or what we look to those things for, right, that is what makes them then a treasure.

Something we cling to, we value.

Again, money is just the most readily available.

It's kind of the base for all these things.

And money brings a sense of security.

And even pride.

If you have a lot of money, it's easy to feel better about yourself.

It's interesting how this works.

You just feel safe.

You feel as though you can weather some hard times, or you can distract yourself from the hardship of life by going and buying other things or doing other things.

So money is a quick, easy thing to hold up as a treasure.

If we're not careful, we just we look to it for meaning and purpose and even pride.

You know, it's it's funny when you don't have any money and you look at people who have a lot of money, you're like, wow, that'd be amazing.

But you just start to get like a little bit of money, like your savings account just grows a little bit.

You're like, all right, you know, like you're just like at two days away from being broke, but you're still feeling like a little bit better.

You're like, okay, like I'm an adult now, I got some things figured out.

But then you meet people who have tens of millions of dollars.

Money you couldn't even wrap your mind around.

And they're insecure, they're fearful, they're scared.

They're scared they might lose their money.

They're scared that other people want their money.

They're scared that their money cannot deliver what they want.

Happiness, meaning, true value.

So money is one of those things.

Possessions, which you use usually money to get possessions, it's just a different currency, so to speak.

Possessions can bring a sense of meaning and security and pride as well.

People like to enjoy things, they like to take pride in what they have.

Walk into my house, look, look what I have, look at the kind of car I drive or the kind of clothes I wear.

It's interesting, you know, you meet uh homeless people and they're very particular about their possessions.

They don't have a whole lot of them.

Usually they fit in a few bags, but they know exactly what they have, and they're protective of it, and they're very kind of um they care a lot about that.

Then you meet all the way up through all the classes, people just can easily begin to care about their possessions.

It's even we live in a backward time where some people take pride in their lack of possessions.

It's like a new way of like flaunting some other kind of wealth.

Like I could have a lot of things, but all I have is I'm a minimalist, so I have very few things.

And their pride is then in that, it's still related to, in a sense, stuff.

Some people treasure status.

It's not really the cash or the stuff, it's the status that they treasure.

They want to be someone, someone worth knowing, someone who has figured things out, someone who's on top, who's winning.

And so their treasure is like their image, their status, their reputation.

They treasure that thing and cling to it for meaning and purpose and value.

For others, and I think this is a very popular one throughout all stratas of society, is comfort.

We want to be comfortable.

Sure, we like to have some money in case you know something bad happens.

But above everything else, we just want to be comfortable.

I want to have been able to eat what I want to eat.

I want to be able to kind of do what I want to do, and I don't want to be a slave.

I just want to be comfortable.

If I feel like serving, I'll serve.

If I feel like sacrificing some money, I'll do that.

But their ultimate aim, their ultimate treasure is their own comfort.

Okay, they want to be comfortable.

These are earthly treasures.

Treasures of the earth.

Verse 19 tells us about these kinds of treasures.

It's that moth and rust will destroy them.

And that thieves break in and steal.

I thought about doing a little side note on taxes on that part, but I thought, you know, that'd be too distracting.

Thieves do come and steal, whether they're in uniform or not.

People do come and try to take what you have because they want it.

Because it's their treasure.

And once they get it, they'll realize quickly, like you realize after you've got it, that it doesn't bring anything, it doesn't deliver anything, it doesn't make them happy, but that's the treasure they want.

So the treasures of this world will be destroyed.

Moth and rust.

It's interesting how much stuff.

If we all went to our homes and packed everything up and brought it here, it would fill this whole place and more.

There's more stuff in your house than you've forgotten how much stuff is in your house.

Even if you just moved recently, like there's boxes you probably haven't unpacked because you don't need it.

Like this is just, and I'm not saying like woe is you, you you wicked you know person who just collects stuff.

We just live in an abundance.

You can go to Dollar General, and for$20 you can walk out with all kinds of stuff, right?

And so my point is there's just so much stuff in our life, and most of it is collecting dust.

Most of it, if if we still lived in this time, moth and rust would be just decaying those things.

But as it is now, they're in our garage, our basement, so they're they're being preserved.

A small plug, actually, I wasn't planning on this, but there's a wonderful thrift store in Danville called Risen Thrift.

Okay?

Take your stuff there.

They sell it and they give a lot of their money back to Lazarus Ministry, so it's a wonderful thing.

Moth and rust steal it.

Thieves break in, or they they destroy it.

Thieves break in and steal.

But yet, and we're all the same.

It's not like I'm different than you in this, but yet we all still want the stuff.

That's the deceiving part.

I know someone might steal it, or I know that it's not gonna bring me value like I want it to, but I still want it.

I still want to get get that new phone, I still want to go on that trip, I still want to do all these things, knowing full well that it will not give me what I want it to give me.

It cannot deliver.

But we're pursuing those things.

We're commanded to not be pursuing those things, to not lay them up.

Well, how do you lay up these things?

Some translations say don't store them up, don't pile up stuff thinking it can bring some kind of hope or deliverance.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying you know, you can't have a savings account or you can't have a retirement or any of those things.

This isn't an anti-money sermon.

Money is God's invention, it's his creation.

It's good.

This is a sermon about worship.

And what are we worshiping?

So we're to not lay up, to store up, to pile up things, whether that be cash and money or other things and stuff or reputation or some kind of status, hoping that whatever the future brings, what we've piled up will carry us through.

That what we've piled up will see us through, and we'll be we'll be happier and we'll be able to endure.

So often you see this in retirement.

People have worked hard for decades and decades.

They finally have uh enough money they think to retire, and they they kind of pull the switch and they retire.

And they just realize.

They realize how empty it is.

They've they've put all their hope, and I'm gonna work all these years just to finally get to this retirement period of my life.

I can finally do what I want to do.

I can finally start giving away money because I've saved enough.

I can start donating my time or energy and giving to those things.

They've toiled away their life looking to their retirement to bring satisfaction.

And it doesn't.

But that's how easy it is to just lay up things hoping that it will deliver.

Again, riches don't make you sinful any more than poverty makes you holy.

It doesn't work that way.

Now, of course, living a simple life makes following Jesus easier.

It's easier to think straight about things when you're not trying to manage like three houses, right?

In a few of cars.

It's just easier.

Again, it's not a sin to have those things.

It just makes it more difficult to know your neighbor and get to know people well and love them.

Paul gives Timothy this encouragement in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 17 through 19.

1 Timothy 6:17–19

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty.

But on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

It's amazing when you think about how much joy you look, you hope to find out of material things.

And again, we all do this.

If I could just have that house, if I could just have that car, if I could just get to this spot, if I just pay off these bills, none of those things are gonna give you what you're hoping they're gonna give you.

Because our richness, our joy, our pleasure in life comes from Christ and Christ alone.

Right?

No other thing can deliver what only He can deliver, because He is the creator.

He's made us this way, He's made us to worship Him, to lay up heavenly treasures that will last forever.

The thing about heavenly treasure, though, is you cannot see it if you don't have an eternal, eternal perspective.

So if your eyes, your focus is just the here and now on this day and age and this world, you can't see what heavenly treasures look like.

Nor could you care about them.

But as Christians, we know that our life doesn't just kind of come to an end, and that's it.

In a real sense, eternity has begun for you.

Your body will die, your spirit will not, your soul will not decay.

You have entered into eternity.

And so you have that perspective, that understanding that what I'm doing while I'm here on earth, in this day and age, in this present age, matters.

I'm laying up treasure in heaven, eternal treasure.

Well, what could those things be?

Well, all through the Bible, God's telling us who He is.

I just want to encourage you.

I know depending on where you're at, and maybe a reading plan or where you're at in your Bible reading, you might be in some just heavy parts of the Old Testament.

You might be in some dry parts of the Old Testament.

Things you're like, okay, so I can't even like pronounce these names.

Do I really have to read these names?

Or can't, you know, does it count if I just skip those chapters?

All throughout the Bible, from beginning to end, God is revealing to us who he is.

So the reason that we have then instruction, this is how to behave, is because God has told us, this is who I am.

And you're my people, so you're gonna follow my ways because you belong to me.

So all through the Bible, God's telling us what it is that he values, what he cares about, what he honors, what he treasures.

And what we should treasure as well.

Going back to the Beatitudes in chapter 5 is a great place to start, to understand God's ways.

He understands again those who are humble, they're others focused.

He treasures and values those who understand the reality of the world.

They're not trying to just get past mourning.

They're understanding that in their morning there is hope in him.

Those who are meek, those who are confident in the Lord and not in themselves.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Those who are merciful.

Those who are pure in heart.

Those who are peacemakers.

Those who endure persecution.

These are things that God treasures.

And I know it can be frustrating because we're just trying to get through our day and our week, and life's hard.

There's demands on all of us.

We're stressed about things.

And sometimes it would just be easier if God just gave us a behavior, like a command, like go to point A and then go to point B and then you're done.

Just give me some just thing I can get up and just do.

Check that box and we're done.

You're happy, I'm happy, it's all good.

We just want to get the thing done for the Lord.

Instead of actually doing heart-level things.

Instead of trusting the Lord, saying, Lord, reveal sin in my life.

Help me to confess it.

Help me to change.

Like, how many of us, if the Lord said, uh hitchhike to California back and then you'll be perfect, we're just like, stand up right now and we're heading that way, right?

Because it's simple.

It's just like, I just gotta get to California back.

Now, why California?

I don't know.

But I'm just saying, like, we just want a tangible do this, and then everything else is gonna work itself out.

Everything else is just good.

Instead of, I don't wanna, I don't wanna deal with my heart.

And am I worshiping the Lord?

Does my heart long for the things of the Lord?

Just tell me a behavior.

Just tell me a thing to do in front of other people, and they can affirm that and we're good to go.

Rather than unpacking the heart.

The whole sermon on the mount is uh is about this thing, our heart.

Do we love the Lord?

Are we worshiping him?

Are we turning to the things of the world?

Are we laying up treasures on earth or are we laying up treasures in heaven?

Do we have an eternal perspective?

That when God promised in Philippians, that when he began a good work into us in us, he would bring it to completion.

Are we trusting in that?

Are we striving in that direction?

Or do we just want to dress a certain way?

Give a certain amount of money to a certain place, attend a certain kind of church service on a Sunday, go through some kind of motion rather than worshiping God.

Sort of lay up treasures in heaven.

And this is the heart of the matter, as the text says.

Treasures reveal our hearts.

Now, if you have with you a pen or paper or pencil and paper or your phone, I want you to pull that out.

I usually don't advocate for getting phones out.

But I want you to get that out.

And I want you to think about this.

I want you to write this down, take a note.

What are things that you are tempted to treasure?

What things are you tempted to treasure?

Write two, three of those things.

If you're saying to fellowship with us, just encourage you to share that with someone.

You don't have to give them like your whole life story and maybe even why that's your first, second, or third thing, but you just share with them uh, hey, this is something that I'm tempted to treasure above the Lord.

If you're a student, it might be your GPA, it might be your grades, or if you're an athlete, it might be your performance of those things, or your reputation.

For some, it might be their parenting.

I take pride in my parenting.

I'm tempted to become a certain kind of parent, and that's my treasure that my kids would end up a certain kind of way, they're my treasure.

It's all kinds of things.

I just encourage you to share one of those or two during the mealtime.

But how is it, or also be thinking about this, how is it that you can guard against that temptation?

How is it that you can guard against that?

And obviously, there's scripture, memorizing scripture, praying, reading the word, gathering with the church.

There's those disciplines of spiritual rhythms.

But practically, like you know what your temptation is.

So what do you need to do?

Do you need to stop checking your bank account balance every day?

Do you need to stop worrying that spending like three hours getting ready before you go somewhere because you're worried about what people will think?

Like, what whatever it is, just be thinking about that.

How do I guard against these temptations?

Again, we're made to worship, and we will worship something.

I say that to you regularly because I need to hear that regularly.

We're made to worship and we will worship.

You cannot not worship.

It's outside of your control.

You will either worship the creator God, the one who made you to worship, and the one whom you're made to worship him solely, or we'll worship the imposter, the deceiver, the one looking to kill and destroy and steal.

We're made to worship, to follow the Lord, to enjoy him.

And this was not possible to worship God until Christ came for us.

The Bible says that we are dead in our sins and our trespasses in Ephesians.

So until Christ came for us, we're dead in our sin, we did not have the ability to worship God, let alone the desire to worship him.

And Christ came for us, dying on the cross, living a perfect life, which is important to know, so that then his death would be an atoning sacrifice for our sin, so that we might then worship God.

In Isaiah chapter 33, verse 6, it says, And he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom and knowledge.

Isaiah 33:6

The fear, the fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure.

We're not a people looking to the treasures of the world or to the wisdom of the world for our hope.

We're looking to the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

So my question or my plea with you, as you think about treasures and laying up treasures on earth and laying up treasures in heaven, is to make Jesus Christ your treasure.

And that's something we do daily.

Because every day you're going to wake up, and you know what you're gonna want?

You're gonna want to be selfish.

You're gonna want to put yourself first, your needs first.

You're gonna be self-centered.

I mean, it's just true for all of us.

There isn't a person in here who doesn't spend an absorbent amount of time thinking about themselves.

And that doesn't make us vain people.

Maybe it does, but it's just the reality.

Like you just think about yourself a lot.

A lot, a lot.

And Christ lovingly, graciously comes and says, You're gonna be upset if you look at yourself too much.

You're gonna be depressed, actually.

You're gonna be anxious, you're gonna be worried, you're gonna be scared, you're gonna be fearful if you look at yourself.

Look to me.

Look to Christ.

He's the one that we look to, that our joy is in, that we our treasure and our affections are in.

Because he not only brings life and salvation, but we are made to worship him.

So, church, let's worship him.

Let's pray.